What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 607: Chapter 607 The Girl Who Threw The Pig’s Foot

In the abandoned underground tunnel, Xiang Kun and Mr. Liang were dealing with a certain “mutant creature”.

Yes, although there seem to be a lot of mutated creatures, such as lizards, snakes, rats, and even a mutated Asian male, this underground space is actually dominated by a single “mutant”. The countless colorful mosses and mushrooms were all parts of this “mutant”, and any humans or animals like the giant lizards and rats were simply hosts that it parasitized, controlled, and influenced.

When Ye Zijun discovered the moss and mushrooms that had sprouted on her face, she lost all hope, even considering suicide so that Xiao Ding could escape. But actually, the “infection” by this “mutant” was not as lethal as she had assumed. If they were not to be killed by the mutant boy or the mutant creature, once they managed to escape from underground and move away from this area – say, returning to their home country – the mosses would naturally disappear.

The reason why Xiang Kun wanted to clear the “infected” parts before Ye Zijun left was to prevent her from receiving excessive treatment or being attacked by the locals after she got out.

However, if they were forcibly kept underground, or “quietly infected”, and did not move away from this area, Ye Zijun would inevitably undergo a complete mutation like the boy, the giant lizards, and the rats, turning into a puppet controlled and manipulated by the parasite.

Even for the controlled creatures, they actually enjoyed it, willingly helping the “mutant” to find more “blood sources” and “hosts”. However, doing so would often result in the old hosts being the first to be eliminated, consumed as a “blood source”.

Xiang Kun walked slowly through the underground tunnel. Wherever he reached, the mosses and mushrooms that had initially spread on the wall ahead, seemingly preparing for a “conference”, began to rapidly fall off or disappear.

As for the mutated creatures crawling out from the nooks and crannies or holes in the surrounding area, they either had already been dealt with by Mr. Liang, who was ahead of him, or else they were frantically fleeing, not daring to come out to intercept or harass Xiang Kun.

Clearly, the “mutant” was showing extreme fear of Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun didn’t pay attention to these things either because he knew that, although those mosses, mushrooms and the like were parts of the “mutant’s” body, controlling or eliminating them wouldn’t truly affect the “mutant”. Just like if you plucked all the leg hair from a person, it might make them hurt, but it wouldn’t kill them.

Xiang Kun arrived at the small door where the Asian boy had lured Ye Zijun and Xiao Ding to “explore”. He stopped next to Mr. Liang, who was standing at the doorway.

Mr. Liang was still invisible, but in the almost total darkness of the area, it didn’t make much difference whether he was invisible or not, as Xiang Kun had multiple modes of sensation.

“I’ve checked, the parasitic creatures on the guy have fully erupted, I think there’s no hope for him,” Mr. Liang’s low and hoarse voice sounded, he looked deeper into the tunnel: “To catch it, we probably need to go further in.” Dozens of miniature drones had already ventured deeper for exploration.

“No worries, it’s hiding deep but its mobility is poor. We can leave it to Alice.” Xiang Kun finished, opened his bag, and soon countless “super-connected spheres” scattered towards the depths of the tunnel from various containers in his bag, as if they were alive.

Besides, the “super-connected spheres” that followed Xiang Kun all the way here earlier, helping to clear Ye Zijun’s face of the “infection”, also followed suit. Like an organized army, they marched in formation in the dark.

“Is that the girl who threw the pig’s foot earlier? The girl who appeared by your side and spoke to you earlier, was it her too? Her name is Alice?” Mr. Liang asked, “She doesn’t seem like a ‘blood-eating creature’?”

Earlier in the mountains, right after he finished drinking blood, he vaguely saw a girl appearing and disappearing next to Xiang Kun, leaving no traces. At that time, Xiang Kun simply described her as a “naughty little one”.

“She’s not a ‘blood-eating creature’. She came into being based on my ability system. In the future, when you can sense more special connections around you, when you can sense the existence of the ‘network system’ I mentioned, you will naturally know who she is and what she can do,” Xiang Kun said, still without elaborating on Alice to Mr. Liang.

Since Mr. Liang had already established a connection with the secondary network of Emotion Infused Objects of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving,” Xiang Kun knew that sooner or later, he would sense something through the “Super-connected Objects” that have now spread all over the various cities and human settlements. At that time, he would naturally gradually realize what kind of existence Alice is, who is omnipresent within the “Super Sensory Item System” and is responsible for allocating various “Super-connected Objects” and “Emotion Infused Objects”.

It’s like someone using a Xiaomi phone, Xiaomi smart home appliances, and all the devices under the Xiaomi ecosystem, they would inevitably come into contact with “Xiao Ai.”

Xiang Kun’s words sparked Mr. Liang’s imaginations, conjuring up various speculations. He still found it hard to understand how a human who was not a “Blood-eating Creature,” especially such a little girl, could vanish so mysteriously at any time? Moreover, judging both by his own senses and by the overt and implicit meanings of Xiang Kun’s words, the little girl was not an optical illusion, but a real entity.

Moreover, from Xiang Kun’s actions, the “magic little steel beads” that he carried on his body seemed to have a direct relationship with the little girl, “Alice”. Could it be that the “little girl” was actually these “little steel beads”?

“Shouldn’t we lend a hand?” Seeing that Xiang Kun remained in place and made no move, Mr. Liang couldn’t help but ask.

Originally, he thought Xiang Kun had rushed him over because this “mutant” was relatively tricky and difficult to handle, but judging by how things were, it didn’t seem like that was the case. Xiang Kun, with his leisurely demeanor, seemed more like he had come for a stroll, to spectate.

“No need, it will be resolved soon.” Xiang Kun said.

The actual fighting power of the “mutant” they were now facing wasn’t strong, but to kill or control it wasn’t easy, mainly because of its enormous “size” and its broad distribution. It was not easy to find its “fatal weakness” or “key part”.

However, just as with how Xiao Luobo easily dealt with the “mutant” underground on the mountain before, when facing this kind of “divided” mutant, Alice, who had ample “super-connected items” to support her, dominated the fight.

Under the level of the “Super Sensory Information”, the divided, hidden parasites, and the resurrection of the “mutant” were all transparent and meaningless.

In comparison, Alice and the “Super-connected Army” she controls via the “Super Sensory Item System”, were the true representation of pulling together. It was entirely a one-sided crush.

Of course, if Xiang Kun was willing to spend time, he could enter the “Super Sensory State” himself, slowly control the release of the Super-connected items, sense and explore cognitive information, with the aid of following smells and thermal imaging vision modes. He could eventually find the core of the “mutant”. But this would take a lot more time, and since Alice could do the work for him, why should he go to the extra trouble?

Less than ten minutes later, a faint light blinked in the distance in the tunnel. Mr. Liang found that all the drones he had sent out instantly lost contact, and only regained connection a few seconds later. He turned to look at Xiang Kun next to him, who then slowly said, “We found it, let’s go over.”

This time, Xiang Kun didn’t stroll at a leisurely pace like before, instead he began to run with big strides. The tunnel was pitch black, but for him, all the terrain and obstacles were clear as day, so he didn’t hesitate at all, running at an extremely fast speed.

Mr. Liang naturally followed closely. Even without using targeted “Biological Components”, he himself was also extremely physically capable.

Following Xiang Kun in running down the tunnel for a while, they turned into a small door on the side. After winding through the narrow and cramped space, they went down a metal ladder to a space underground. Mr. Liang immediately smelled the scent of something being scorched.

“Turn on the light.” Xiang Kun, in front, stopped.

Mr. Liang did as instructed, turning on the illuminating device he carried. Then he saw in front of him a shrunken mass, heavily covered in moss and small mushrooms, about two meters in diameter. Numerous tiny fluffy tentacles protruded from the surroundings of the creature, as if fearing something, they dared not touch the ground.

In the air, large amounts of tiny dust could be seen fluttering. Mr. Liang realized that these particles had the ability to “infect”. He was about to switch on the air-filtering respiration “Biological components”, but then he realized that Xiang Kun was right next to him and decided not to take any action, instead standing behind Xiang Kun and acting as a “spotlight”.

“Is this a case of a blood-eating creature of the fungus kind devouring one from the moss kind, or vice versa?” Mr. Liang couldn’t help but ask.

“They’re in a state of incomplete ‘symbiosis’.” As Xiang Kun spoke, he reached into his own bag, took out a handful of green seeds, and threw them directly at that mass.

As those seeds were tossed, countless “Super-connected spheres” lurking in the surrounding darkness pounced instantaneously, enveloping the mossy mushroom cluster, which seemed about to move, transforming it into a ball of iron and significantly reducing its size.

Obviously, what that “mutant” just feared were these spheres.

“You want to…plant trees with them?” Mr. Liang asked in astonishment.

He had seen these seeds before, he knew they came from the countless “Twisted Neck Trees”, peculiar vines and various seemingly ordinary “offspring plants” under Xiang Kun’s control.

He knew very well how terrifying these plants were; both the previous “Giant raptor” and giant underground “Blood-eating Creature” were easily controlled and held hostage by these plants, devoid of any resistance ability.

He had never figured out whether these plants were a special kind of “Blood-eating Creatures” or a part of Xiang Kun, a “prolongation of his own body”?

“Your description is accurate.” Xiang Kun replied.

Mr. Liang remained frowning and asked, “So…it is not my next blood source?”

“I told you, our objective this time isn’t ‘hunting’.” Xiang Kun looked at that orb continuously morphing as if something inside was trying to break out of the sphere barrier and said, “This thing might look big, causing a lot of commotion and creating a significant impact, but speaking from the level of transformation, it’s quite low-level, far from meeting your current needs.”

“We rushed over here to save those two girls?” Mr. Liang asked.

He had looked up Xiang Kun’s information, he knew that Xiang Kun has a complex of stepping in to help those in need. During the period of his mutation, Xiang Kun had assisted the police in catching criminals and saving people numerous times, winning heaps of cash rewards. The major illusion in Myitkyina was also his doing, aiming to prevent the riot targeting Chinese tourists.

“It’s part of the reason,” Xiang Kun replied, “but not the main one.”

While speaking, he walked over, patted that iron ball that had been wrapped up and was now quiet, and said, “This thing is a ‘tool’ used by the ‘Ultimate Predator’ to test us. Or more precisely, that male student as well as those two female students that just arrived, they all serve as its ‘tools’.”

“Tools…of the Ultimate Predator?” Upon hearing this term, Mr. Liang was subconsciously on high alert.

Noticing his emotional shift, Xiang Kun laughed and said, “There’s no need to worry; it can’t understand our communication now. As I’ve said before, to perceive and obtain information, it needs to go through the transformation of some functional organs and parts. It needs to process the information through the consciousness of other organisms. It needs other organisms to help it make judgments and calculations. In other words, unless there’s a part of you or me that has been transformed by its hidden factors, it wouldn’t be able to understand what we’re discussing.”

“So…it deliberately lured you here? With those two girls?” Mr. Liang understood something, “Do you know them?”

“The Ultimate Predator has been testing us all along. During our previous ‘hunts’, a lot of things were happening around us. It knows that your level of transformation is constantly increasing and it might sense that we seem to be targeting it, but it doesn’t know what we are going to do precisely nor dares to confront me directly. Moreover, your increase in transformation level is also something it wants. As such, it could only use a messy array of methods to try and attract our attention, probe us and try to plant its ‘spies’ around us,” Xiang Kun explained.

“I’ve been ignoring its probes all this time, but now, I want to conduct an experiment, so I thought I’d come over,” Xiang Kun said, “and by the way, save some people.”

Ye Zijun was also connected to the secondary Emotion Infused Objects network of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed woodcarving”, so through the “Super sensory Item System”, Alice could monitor her whereabouts and status changes in real time.

Alice knew well what she was going through and was able to predict it to some extent.

But if Alice wanted to save them, she could only issue a warning in advance, and try to prevent them from being taken into the underground passage by that “host”. Although she could restrain that “moss mushroom”-like “mutant”, she needed sufficient “Super-connected Objects” for support, which were not available in their vicinity or in that underground tunnel at the time. If Alice had enough time, she could use her control over the internet and the entire social system to place sufficient “Super-connected Objects” in that underground tunnel.

After informing Xiang Kun about the situation, he decided to come over with Mr. Liang and respond to the inquiries of the “Ultimate Predator”.

The special factors in the “moss mushroom” had been activated, forming a control system to control and drive its behavior.

The Chinese boy who was parasitized by the “moss mushroom” also had miniature organs formed by special factors. Even Xiao Ding had his special factor activated before entering the underground tunnel, but it had not shown any significant impact or manifestation yet. It was cleared by Xiang Kun and Alice, like a spy hiding in the body who hadn’t gathered any information yet but was caught and killed. When Xiang Kun was helping Ye Zijun deal with the moss on her face, he was actually helping Xiao Ding unknowingly remove the special factors and special body tissues in her body with the help of the “Super-connected Objects” nearby.

Among everyone, only Ye Zijun was not affected by the “Ultimate Predator”.

Because she had established a connection with the secondary Emotion Infused Objects network of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Woodcarving”, as long as there were some “Super-connected Objects” where Ye Zijun was located, Alice could ensure that the unique cognitive information and special factors of Ye Zijun’s “Ultimate Predator” would not be transformed and activated into substances that could affect her body and consciousness, or form some kind of microorganism. If necessary, Alice could even inform Xiang Kun to help Ye Zijun remotely clear the special factors in her body.

Strictly speaking, Alice could also prevent and control the special factors of other people around Ye Zijun, but her main control is now within the country, surrounding the people Xiang Kun has instructed, such as Xiang Kun’s parents, Old Xia, Little Apple, and Tang Baona, to ensure that they are not directly affected by the “Ultimate Predator” and are not implanted with special factors again.

Therefore, for others, Alice would not make too much effort unless Xiang Kun instructed her to do so, or she was within the secondary network of “Emotion Infused Objects”, because her protective capacity is limited. Xiang Kun’s previous plan was to infinitely enhance Alice’s protection and monitoring capabilities, effectively paralyzing the “Ultimate Predator’s” ability to control the fate of other creatures. But this method requires a long time and needs to be laid out slowly. The “Ultimate Predator’s” control of the “mutated big bird” to attack the passenger plane forced Xiang Kun to change his plan and prepare to solve the problem in a more aggressive and quick manner.

Watching the tiny steel beads all disperse and the moss turn from colorful to a single shade of green, with all the little mushrooms and surrounding tentacles disappearing, Mr. Liang asked ironically, “Is this… being swallowed?”

“Not ‘swallowed’ in the way you understand it, but more like assimilated,” Xiang Kun said, “The fungal part of it got killed, and the moss part has become part of ‘Xiao Luobo’. It’s not a conventional ‘mutant’ or ‘blood-eating creature’ anymore.”

“Xiao L.. Luobo?” Mr. Liang was somewhat bewildered. He felt that in front of Xiang Kun, he was supposed to be the senior who had mutated for more than a decade, the “legitimate” one who had a “professional” like Academician Shen to conduct research with, the one who was much older than Xiang Kun, but why… did he feel like an ignorant newbie in front of a high-level player? The more time he spent with Xiang Kun, the more he felt he knew too little.

However, this didn’t bring him any sense of defeat, but more a sense of novelty and a hint of absurdity.

Looking at the cluster of moss that seemed to remain unchanged on the spot, Xiang Kun knew that this new type of “moss” was quietly growing everywhere in the world, in forests controlled by various “Xiao Luobo”, and even in some cities.

Instead of answering Mr. Liang’s question about “Xiao Luobo”, Xiang Kun bent down, picked up a piece of moss, turned around and walked in front of him and asked:

“Have you ever imagined what a world without the ‘Ultimate Predator’ would look like?”